The Vista wears the New Black

I will be writing a response to this editorial tonight. This is from my college newspaper. I'll fisk it for now and write the real letter later. This article is printed in The Vista, the newspaper for the University of Central Oklahoma.

Strong language follows. This post is not for children.

Schiavo Deserves to Die With Dignity

Let the poor woman die.
Yes, this is an appeal to the parents and family of Terri Schiavo, the state of Florida, the federal court system, the United States Congress and President Bush.

Schiavo is a wife and daughter, a sister and was once a living breathing person, free from life support, but she is no longer that same person.

Because, she's like, a vegetable, you know? Totally not a person if you can't feed yourself.

Schiavo, 41, has been unresponsive for more than a decade, and now her feeding tube has been removed once again by the courts, perhaps for good.

Opponents rightly bring up moral issues and the rights of those unable to decide for themselves. These issues should be explored before ending a life. Every option must be exhausted. But, when it's someone's time to go, no matter how heartbreaking it might be, that person deserves to die in peace.

Starving to death is hardly peaceful, you dumbshits. Why don't you try to go without food or water for a week and see how peaceful you feel.

The again, some have hinted that if assisted sucide is allowed it would open the flood gates and give greedy insurance companies an out when faced with paying for the continued care of a terminally ill patient by simply pulling the plug, all in the name of saving a few dollars.

This however, is irresponsible thinking. We as a people value life and all it has to offer. We should not play God, but when someone such as Schiavo is in a permanent vegetative state hooked up to machines, what does life have to offer to her? Sadly, nothing.

You're saying we shouldn't play God, but here you are deciding when it's a woman's time to die? I didn't get the memo that said that was no longer God's decision. As far as I understand it, the only real machine that is keeping Terri alive is her feeding tube. Somehow, not being able to feed herself makes her life useless.

With her feeding tube attached she is otherwise not dying, but how is her existence now much more different than death?

Well, for one, she's breathing. Last I checked, that's fairly different than death. Of course, by the time I write the response to this article and it's published, that may not be so anymore. Oh, there's also the ability to use her voice, to respond to stimuli. She can't move completely, but she is no 'vegetable'. You're all fucking lazy. You didn't even bother to investigate this for yourselves. Just puke out whatever the AP feeds to you. Fucking lemmings.

The fate of Schiavo should not become a partisan issue. Instead, the federal courts should take the power given to them in this matter by the U.S. Senate into account, along with all moral and ethical issues, and quickly, then decide that Schiavo's life ended many years ago, and that while it must be heartbreaking, her parents must let her go.

Wait, so the STATE should be able to decide when a person dies? Oh shit! You guys would make great Nazis.

No one is advocating ending life with impunity. There are consequences, but those consequences will be left to those who ultimately decide her fate and those who loved her and should hope to want the best for her.

*Beats head on desk repeatedly*

So we ask the courts and those who love Schiavo to let her die with dignity, with a heightened appreciation for the gift of life that can sadly be taken in an instant. But sometimes, as in this case, a life is taken while a body lives on.

I think I just went crosseyed from the stupidity in the last sentence. I think the LAST person deciding wether or not I'm 'alive' or not should be the state. Apparently, BREATHING and VOCALIZING and RESPONDING TO STIMULI count for nothing. Terri's sucking air! Let's kill her slowly through starvation and call it a dignified death! NO, let's not watch her die, we have to keep the illusion of death a calm and peaceful thing. Let's not watch the woman slowly waste away from lack of food or drink!

My head hurts! IT HURTS!

Most people, if given the option, would not want to be sustained on life support systems that drain a family emotionally and financially.

Because my life is worth living only if I can pay the money back!

It's time to make the hardest decision that a family should ever have to make and let Terri Schiavo go. nearly everyone in the country by this point has formed an opinion in the matter, but now the decision is left to the courts to do what it feels is best for Schavo, her family and a nation sharply divied by right to live and right to die issues.

I'm too angry to give this the eloquent response this needs right now. I mean, the idea that the state should be allowed to decide when I die, wether or not I can recieve my final sacraments, wether or not my life is worth living is such a disgustingly scary thought. It is quite obvious that the Vista is run by nazis or lemmings. Maybe both. I will come back to this later.